Chen calls Apple iPhone users "wall-huggers"

BlackBerry CEO John Chen seems like a fearless sort. It takes someone who has been battle scarred to take on such contemporaries as T-Mobile CEO John Legere. Chen did manage to turn around Sybase, dress it up, and sell it off to SAP for $5.8 billion, so we know that he is a tough cookie. How tough? Well, he just managed to "dis" the whole population of Apple iPhone users, calling them "wall-huggers".

Chen was speaking at the Oasis Montgomery Conference and was asked what he thought about Apple's (all together now) iconic smartphone. The executive said that since the device cannot last a full day without requiring a battery recharge, he calls users of the device "wall-huggers" which apparently means that iPhone users are constantly leaning against a wall, recharging their handset.

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lol that must make blackberry wall-huggers too....
But seriously, unless they add in a huge battery (for the next iteration of blackberry phones), they are pretty much in the same position as the iphone in terms of battery life.

I dont think battery life was ever an issue for most of iphone users in order to make them buy a BB phone. Ye its not the best one but its ok. Plus calling your potential customers as wall huggers is just plain stupid.

I don't think many iPhone users would switch to a BB now anyway, BB10 has a learning curve that most iPhone users (children and elderly) probably couldn't figure out. Still, if MS can have their Scroogled Campaign running when they're in the same number range as BB, then you can't really say Chen is stepping over the line. I think Chen just struck a personal chord with Alan by mocking Apple though, prompting this article. Still, I will see how Chen turns BB around because until he does, his words are without weight.

its the whole iPhone experience dude.. battery life is the last thing we are worried about when we decide to buy a phone. Depends on which experience you want. if your an old person that doesnt want any nonsense on your phone.. Get an iPhone, if your young and want customization your phone get an Android. Windows phone? .. maybe for the budget minded that prefer Nokia phones. then we have the bottom feeder Blackberry Sadly.. but what goes up must come down.

not sure if you are talking to me because I've never complained about the battery life of the iPhone. All I did was response to what Blackberry CEO said....(As in he is talking nonsense because his phones have similar battery life to the iphone)

Brings back the early days of Android, when Steve Jobs called 7" tablets DOA and all the mindless iFans chanted that for months on just about every tech site. How history has changed despite some things remaining the exact same.

BB has been known for amazing batteries ...only z10 falls out on this side of things , but still better than iphone5's battery ....my z30 lastes a hole 20 hours of play music and chating without a worry

There must be something wrong with the water at BB's offices. Chen is looking like he is infected with the same denial syndrome as his predecessors. Early on, he made some non-denial moves, which could be explained by the absence of the denial toxin. But now, after the toxin has built up in his system, it is business as usual.

13.papss (unregistered)

At this point with bb what else can he do to stay in the lime light... Phones don't just magically get completed so he is trying to stay in the news.. No harm in that I suppose. People get their panties in a bunch over simple words then I feel sorry for them, he's doing what he has to do. Only other option is to die quietly

BlackBerry phones do have a great battery life, I've used a Bold 9780 and now I have a BlackBerry Q5 and I must say they both lasted me about 1.5 days, on my Q5, I constantly send E-Mails, send messages on Whatsapp, check on Facebook and Twitter and also a little bit of gaming here and there, and it still lasts me 1.5 days.I also keep my mobile data always on.

But this guy here is absolutely right. Yes, when Mike Lazardis and Jim Balsille said what they said, everyone could sense they were in the wrong direction because they were basically defending their own approach towards a smartphone against that of Apple's, that too when the iOS and the then latest approach was creating waves.
And this statement is a generalised statement that's in line with the fact that most of the iPhone users have to indeed carry their chargers to keep their Phone working. So comparing this statement with what Lazardis and Balsille said back then is completely out of context.
iPhone indeed needs to fix the Battery thing. The Battery backup, at times, is absolutely unbearable.

Not an iPhone5 fact by any means, but I would definitely take it over a Blackberry any day. Heck I would take a flip phone as well. Chen your and idiot and Blackberrys market share will continue to fail

The three main reasons that make Blackberry battery lasts longer compared to iPhone or maybe even Android:
1. Blackberry users don't know what to do with their handheld other than open their emails, read news, and social media because it lacks of apps compared to iPhone and Android handhelds.
2. What services did Blackberry run on the background compared to the Android smartphone? Nothing!
3. Yeah maybe you're right about your statement which has only less than 1.500 mAh battery. Maybe you can compare BB with the Android smartphones which has the similar battery size like SGS 4. It has much running services on the background, but it still has the better endurance battery based on the gsmarena test.

I am just baffled how somebody here said that if someone is looming at windows phone....its for a budget Nokia phone. I'm sick and tired of you people on here who dont do any research just because windows phone isn't your platform of choice! My NOKIA LUMIA 1520 that has been out for months benchmarks higher with the old adreno 330 than the not yet released "flagship" Galaxy S 5. Get out of here. My Lumia 1520 is not budget. 1080p screen with ClearBlack technology and Pure Motion technology and gorilla glass 3. My 20mp camera with PureView technology. My polycarbonate Unibody. My Quad core Snapdragon 800 processors. With an OS as smooth as putting a heated knife through butter. No lag like android. I know I'm exaggerating when I say this>>>>it would take IBM's Watson super computer to run Android without lag....but I feel like it would...maybe because year after year 95% of malware is on android. Get over yourselves android know it alls. I'm not a fan of Apple or Blackberry but I've used both platforms aside from my Windows phone and I've appreciated the smooth and consistent OS's

why is BB not changing to Android or Window, at least it manage to survive this storm, then only it release back its BB OS just like sammy having Tizens while at the same time producing ANdroid phone...

isn't that people getting BB because it was BB and not android or WP? and switching to android doesn't guarantee people to get more of their phone either. instead of wasting their resource to make another ecosystem based on android it is better to for them to strengthen their own ecosystem. also the situation isn't like samsung's tizen.

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